House Republicans, led by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), have put out what they claim is legislation to put an end to congressional stock trading — but it does nothing of the sort, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in a lengthy thread on X dismantling the bill. In fact, she argued, it could actually make certain kinds of congressional stock trades easier and less transparent.
The main problem, she wrote, is that the only thing the bill actually prohibits is buying new stocks after taking office — not holding or selling the stocks lawmakers already have.
“This is NOT a Congressional stock trading ban. It’s leadership’s attempt to kill the existing bipartisan proposal,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez. “Bill is a set of new vehicles and loopholes written by and for the wealthiest members of Congress to evade tracking of their trades. It lets them continue to own, trade, and sell stock – but with less transparency so YOU can no longer track them.”
The bill, as written, Ocasio-Cortez continued, “allows members with massive holdings to continue to own individual stock and buy using their dividends,” and “creates new exceptions for member’s spouses and child dependents to buy ON BEHALF OF OTHER PEOPLE” — all while letting millionaire lawmakers continue to sell the stocks they already own, whenever they want.
“If anything, this bill makes it harder for public trackers of member trades to follow member investment activity,” she concluded. “And they are hoping that if the public can no longer track their trades, that you will think they are no longer trading.”
At the same time as Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats criticize the Steil bill’s half-measures and lack of transparency, many Senate Republicans appear opposed to any change to congressional stock trading rules altogether, putting it in doubt whether the bill could even be taken up by the Senate if it passes.
Proposals to ban members of Congress from trading stocks have cropped up for years, as the existing rules — which allow stock trading but require full public disclosure — have proven ineffective and are frequently ignored.
Earlier this week, Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), one of Congress’s most notorious day traders, was exposed having purchased over $1,400 of stock in a supplier for artificial intelligence data centers, right around the same time he was pushing for tech companies to build more of these data centers in his own district. He denies any trading off non-public information, saying that his financial advisers made the purchase on his behalf without any input from him.
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